Armoured Mecha Ponies

Full Armoured Ponies

Chapter 1: Beginnings

[{Science institute, Canterlot}]

“Test subject 279936 shows signs of compatibility with neural interface and bio-augmentations. The results show the highest chance of success than any other subject. The foals abilities are quite promising from such a young age. It is fortunate that this foals personality is more appropriate to be paired with harmony F.”

“Well done my little pony. Tell me about this foals cutie mark.”

“Well princess... That’s just it. The foal hasn't got one yet.”

The regal Alicorn contemplated for a few moments “I would like you to bring him to me”

“Of course princess, also it may interest you in knowing that it is the foals birthday today as well”

“Thank you for telling me this, please don’t let me keep you”

“Yes your majesty”

[{Coltland, north-west of Equestria]}

“TAG! you’re it!” you yell as you lightly poke the unicorn in front of you with a hoof.

“No I’m not you missed!” the unicorn you just tagged shouted back.

You skid to a halt and turn around. The unicorn copies your movement and begins to chase you in the school playground. You've been playing for a while, both you and your friend have grown tired and were about to go find a bench when you ran around a corner into a large obstacle. You collided with it with an “oomph” and fell back on your rump.

After waving a hoof to get rid of the yellow chicks flying around your head you looked up.

Celestias sun was blocked by an all too familiar unicorn colt “you gonna apologize for that blankie!”

The sentence was not a question, but a statement. The unicorn was abnormally large, coupled with his bio-augmented strength. His mane was fully black and his coat was a dark orange, this colt was the schoolyards resident bully.

You managed to squeak out a couple of words “s-s-sorry Matilda Strong-horn”

You bowed your head in shame, avoiding eye contact with the infamous bully. You heard a laugh, that could possibly be a snort, before something hits you square in the chest, sending you flying across the dirt.

Your body scrapes along the dirt and your chest feels like it’s on fire. You can hear a lot of commotion around you. You open your eyes to find your friend fussing over your body. You shuffled a bit to get up when a flicker of movement from the bully caught your eye.

You shoved your friend aside, stepping into his place, just as a hoof came down on your rib-cage with a painful THUMP. You stifled out a shriek, and let out a small whimper. You tried to move but found your movement impeded by a certain unicorn levitating you up “Ha, pathetic wimp. You blank flanks are too easy” and with that, he tossed you aside like garbage.

The bully walked away leaving you battered and bruised in the dirt. Your friend got up, dusted himself off and trotted over to you “You shouldn't have done that. He knows you do things like that, you’re too kind for your own good sometimes you know that?”

He offered out a hoof, which you gratefully took.

After a few painful moments and an excuse you left the nurses office, school finished about 10 minutes ago and your friend left so he could get home and escape the bullies thugs.

You exit the school gates and enter stallion street. You turn right and begin galloping down the street. Behind you you hear the sound of multiple hoofsteps behind you. This speeds you up even more as you try to get to the safety of your own home. You turn the corner at the end of the street and run down coltchester road.

You get halfway down the street when you hear a lack of hoofsteps behind you. You turn to see a group of three Pegasus ponies grinning wickedly, you snap your head round and put on another burst of speed. You run out into the middle of the street and duck down, skidding underneath a moving carriage. You hear the yelps and the sound of a crash of the carriage being knocked over.

Panting, you smile to yourself as you slow down to a fast trot. You round the next corner to you own road, little foal lane.

Close to the your house you see a crowd of ponies and a few red and blue flashing lights.

You are already exhausted so you only canter at a slow pace. Once you get there, you weave your way through the other ponies legs getting to the front of the crowd. As you get closer, a large Pegasus mare stops you.

She looks at you and her face looks as that of mild surprise before ordering another police officer to take her place. She pulls you away from the crowd, taking you to a more secluded part of the area.

Whilst following the police-mare you notice her flank has a bubble on it and inside the bubble is a silver shield with the moon and sun emblazoned on it. Her uniform covers most of her body but you can still see her coat is a beige colour. because of her wings

She sits you down next to an armoured coach and reaches inside. She pulls out a box wrapped in red and gold striped paper, over the wrapping there is a blue ribbon covering it, holding down the lid of the box. You smile a little and accept it, you look around, trying to catch a glimpse of your parents.

The officer must have noticed this as she sits down next to you and places a hoof around your shoulder. You flinch at the sudden contact and your gaze locks onto her. The police-mare takes a deep breath and lets out a long sigh “Your parents are still in your house. They are being held hostage by some stallion with explosives wrapped around his chest, your parents managed to convey this present to us, giving us a picture of you as well.”

She closes her eyes and takes in another deep breath before opening them and continuing “We are doing everything we can to free your parents. Try not to worry too much okay.”

You nod your head and look back to the entrance of the house.

After what seemed like ages of waiting, the front door opened revealing your mother exiting the flat. You smile the biggest smile ever. She spots you and her eyes began welling up, tears flowing freely. She shakes her head and pulls a hoof to her mouth before extending it to you and blowing air at you, an air kiss which you grab from the air and hold to your heart.

You gaze into her sad eyes, you look in confusion. Was your mother not happy to see you?

You took a step forward and time seemed to slow down. You hear the click as your hoof hits the cobblestones.

Fire erupts from behind your mother, reaching towards her at a speed too fast for your eyes to register. Flames erupt from the windows of the upstairs rooms and glass shatters around you along with a large portion of the flat. The last you saw of your mother was the sad smile on her face, just before the explosion reached her, and took her away from your view. You could see a single shining tear slowly reach the edge of her smile and welled up, before dropping. You watched the single tear drop as it reflected the light from a nearby street lamp. You watched as it was blasted apart from the shockwave. You looked as the last teardrop she shed was blasted into a million tiny fragments, it was then incinerated as the heat from the flames hit them. You looked on as the fragments winked out existence like the stars on a cloudless night.

The flames engulfed her form, swirling around like a black storm rolling over the horizon. The intense heat and light burned the retina in your eyes, forcing you to close and shield your eyes.

You could feel the shock wave hit you and the the force of the explosion blows your mane about as if it had a life of its own as well as bristling your coat. The police mare jumps over you to protect you from the remainder of the blast and the falling debris.

The police-mare then grabbed the box, shoved the ribbon in your mouth and picked you up in hers. Running away from the explosion, she crouches behind another armoured chariot and sets you down, she takes a look at you and she uses both hooves and pulls your face to hers. You gaze into her large magenta eyes.

You watch as her lips move but you cannot hear, there is a continuous ringing in your ears blocking out all outside sounds. Slowly, the ringing dies away “[size=6]can you hear me?[/size][size=7] please answer me![/size] [size=8]kid are you alright?[/size] Celestia's sake say something! nod your head anything!”

Your head slowly moves up and down, you open your mouth to speak and the box you were carrying falls out of your mouth, hitting the cobblestones with a soft thump. You look down and you stare at the floor, unwilling to look at anything else. Your brain is frozen, unable to comprehend what just happened.

A beige hoof lifts your chin up to those two large magenta eyes again “Are you okay?” her soft voice breaks the veil of you mind, it starts working over-drive, your heart feels shattered and empty.

You look up and gaze deeply into her eyes for the third time. You try to choke back a sob and fail miserably as you rush forwards and hug her neck. The mare flinches.

She opens her mouth a few times but eventually she wraps a hoof around you “There there, it’s okay. You’re safe now, nothing is gonna hurt you. You’re going to be alright.” she coo’s. She continues to speak soothing and calming words to you as you sob into her chest, tears flowing like miniature rivers.

The moment was interrupted when a purple dragon walked up to the two “lieutenant shield! is this the foal?”

The mare holds you steady and stands to attention, pulling off a quick smart salute, whilst holding you with the other, and nods her head “Yes sir! Permission to speak freely sir?”

“Permission granted”

“Sir the parents of the foal have been... caught up in the explosion, the foal is in need of a... Bodyguard and escort. Permission to temporarily fill that role in sir?” you are too busy grieving to understand what the mare was talking about.

The purple dragon stares at you in surprise, then looks at the police-mare “Permission granted. but the princess wishes to speak to him. We’ll take the escort that I brought with me.”

The police-mare pulls off another smart salute, your scared and you feel cold, empty and lonely. You push your thoughts aside, thinking about what to do next. You pick up the present your mum gave you and you were about to open it when the police-mare put a hoof on your shoulder, you look up and see her shake her head.

You nod your head, a little disappointed. But you pick it up in your teeth and you began to follow the police-mare and the purple dragon. He entered a large coach with the princesses flag emblazoned on the side, showing that this was a royal coach. You would have giggled a little from the excitement but your heart wasn’t in the right place, it probably never will be ever again.

You jump up onto the first step and climb your way up into the coach, the police-mare following behind you. You sit down comfortably, unconsciously sitting next to your present to keep it safe.

The purple dragon sits opposite you and the mare. He bangs the wall twice and the carriage begins moving. The dragon reaches out his hand to you, you shy away, trying to hide behind the police-mare. He chuckles a bit and lowers his hand “Don’t worry I won’t hurt you. My names spike, I would ask for yours but I already know it. So whatcha got there then” he points towards the box next to you.

You shrug your shoulders and pull it a little closer. Looking at the police-mare, you pull the best puppy dog eyes you can at her. She visibly wilts under your pleading eyes and nods, smiling all the while.

You give of a barely audible squeak and pull the ribbon off of the box. You open the lid and take a peek inside. You squeal with joy as you pull out another box from inside “Wow! its a special edition build-it-yourself model of the MK VI super tank!” you jump up and down with joy.

Spike and the mare laugh softly at your excitement. You look around to find your mum and thank her, only to find her missing. You look down, downtrodden. Your tears begin to well up again. The mare wraps both hooves around you and begins stroking your mane as you cry into her chest.

After a long time your tears dry up, yet you continue to hug the police-mare tightly. Unwilling to let her go. You yawn and tense up a little before snuggling up to her and getting more comfortable. You look up at the police-mare “Can you sing me a lullaby. If you don’t mind, umm nevermind...”

You lower your head and hide behind you mane as the police mare shakes her head “why don’t you sing a lullaby, I think we all need one”

Slowly, you sit up straight and take a deep breath

“hush now, quiet now

it’s time to lay your sleepy head.

hush now, quiet now

it’s time to go to bed.

drifting off to sleep

leave the exciting day behind you.

drifting off to sleep

let the joy of dreamland find you.

hush now, quiet now

it’s time to lay your sleepy head.

hush now, quiet now

it’s time to go to bed.”

You lay your head on the bench and lay down, you glimpse round to find Spike and the police-mare sleeping peacefully. You smile a little to yourself as you wait for the rest of the ride.

You hear a rattling sound coming from the floor. You peak over the edge of the bench and see a small black felt-tip pen rolling around the carriage. You reach down and pick it up, staring at it for a while. You glance at the prone, peaceful bodies of spike and the police-mare. Then you look back at the pen. A small, funny, foalish idea forms in your head. You smile a silly little grin.

[Meanwhile. in another universe]

A small pink fluffy thing has just finished its beautiful, melodious lullaby. It opens its eyes, hoping to receive praise from its impromptu audience. Instead it finds the sleeping bodies of two people with a giant “R” on their clothes. As well as a small bipedal cat-thing with a gold rounded rectangle on its forehead.

The pink fluff-ball grows red with frustration and rage, using a small arm it pops the head off of a microphone  and reveals a black marker pen underneath. It begins moving towards the blue haired person, who rolls over to hug the red haired person. Who, in turn, hugs the blue haired person back. The cat thing, unconsciously feeling left out, grabs the blue haired persons boot and sticks it in his mouth. The cat thing then begins to drool and sucks gently on the boot like a small baby.

However, the pink fluff-ball has other ideas as it raises the pen directly above the blue haired persons head...

[Back in the original universe]

When the coach lands you get up from your position and shake the police-mare gently “Wake up miss, we’re here” you carefully slip off of the seat and move over to Spike. You gently nudge his knee “Wake up Mister Spike, the carriage has stopped.” the purple dragon yawns and stretches. Letting off popping sounds and showing his very large canine teeth, his yawn sounding like a manticores growl.

You “eep” and jump over to the police-mare and hide behind her leg. He blinks a few times and notices you hiding behind the police-mares leg “Oh sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you there. I never was much of a waking up dragon.” he gets up, scratching the back of his head and opens the side door, jumping out and holding the door open after he got out.

The police-mare leans over and places your present on her back before indicating you to follow her with a flick of her head. She then jumped out. Unwilling to be left alone, you jump out after her. Spike closes the door behind you and orders the pegasi pulling the chariot to take it away.

You look at your surroundings from behind the police-mares leg. The palace was beautiful. The white stone structure was magnificent, architecture standing more prominently than efficiency. Spike stands taller by about five hooves (roughly two foot) above everyone else. He begins to walk forward, the police-mare following him. You stand in between them as they walk forward.

He turns to look at you and the police-mare. As he does so, he notices the markings on the police-mares head, she notices the markings on his head as well. Spike puts his claws to hims mouth and stifles a giggle. The police-mare, lacking the proper restraint, she bursts out laughing. She drops to the floor, muscles flailing around and wings twitching sporadically as she laughs out loud. Spike then follows suit and joins her on the ground laughing his tail off.

After a few minutes they regain their breath and then cleaned their faces. Well, if you can call it that, really they just smudged the pen marking everywhere  “I’ll go tell the princesses that you have arrived, and I’ll let them know of the events that have transpired. Meanwhile I’ll have the royal guard escort you to your rooms.”

The police-mare nods her head as two unicorns open a pair of large double doors, with golden patterns on them, they step through after you and close the door behind them. They had golden armour and they both had white coats, with blue eyes. Completely un-identical.

One of them steps in front of you “We will show you to your rooms. Follow me please”

And with that he trots ahead of you in a quick march. You follow him through a maze of corridors before he stops in front of a single doorway “This will be your room for the night” he said pointing towards you “Lieutenant you will be staying in the mares barracks, please follow me”

Seeing the police-mare begin to leave, you look around uncertainly “Please don’t leave me”

You barely manage to raise your voice but she turns around and pulls the most gentle and reassuring look she could possibly muster “Don’t worry, I’ll be back later on. Why don’t you try and build the new model you got”

You droop your head in disappointment, but you perk up a little bit at the prospect of creating the new model you got. You pick up the box the police-mare put on the floor and walk through the open door to the bedroom.

In the center of it was a large four-poster double bed, with a small desk beside it, and several draws with ink, paper and quills on closer inspection. The walls are lined with an array of bookcases filled with books of every kind. The bathroom is large, fitted with a shower, bathtub, toilet, sink, and even a beday. There are beauty products lining the walls everywhere and on one side of it there is a large mirror.

after exiting the bathroom you walk over to your present and begin to open it.

A few minutes later and the box lid finally comes free. Squealing with delight, you pour the contents onto the floor, separating all the pieces and opening all their protective plastic covers.

You organise the pieces in number order (courtesy of the removable labels) and then begin looking at the instructions. As you begin building it, you feel as if somepony is watching you. You turn around and find no pony to be there.

You shrug your shoulders, Fighting off the feeling that somepony is staring at you, watching your every move.

You begin to build your favorite super tank.

[51 minutes later]

You're fiddling with the rotating cannon, trying to ease it onto its holder, your hooves are trembling slightly. You take a deep breath and relax as you lower it the last few millimeters. You feel the tank head touch the holder and you push all your weight onto it, eliciting a popping noise as the tank head it secured. You jump up and down with joy, you finally managed to complete the model.

Fully built, you notice that it is almost as big as yourself. If not exactly the same size.

You walk around it, checking for any parts that are missing or out of place. After finding nothing wrong with it, you check for any parts on the floor that were unused. Finding a few alternate parts and putting them back in the box. You look back towards your model and beam proudly.

You push the tank forwards, the tank tracks moving perfectly. You turn the tank head sideways, making sure that it moves freely. After swiveling and moving the parts on the tank you push it to the side of your bed.

You glance at the clock in your room, midnight. You yawn and jump up onto your bed.

You pull the covers over yourself and you begin drifting off.

Before you slip into unconsciousness you hear a soft voice singing a familiar lullaby:

“Hush now, quiet now

it’s time to lay your sleepy head.

Hush now, quiet now

it’s time to go to bed.

[size=9]Drifting off to sleep

leave the exciting day behind you.

Drifting off to sleep

let the joy of dreamland find you.[/size]

[size=8]Hush now, quiet now

it’s time to lay your sleepy head.

Hush now, quiet now

it’s time to go to bed.”[/size]

A yellow and pink figure fades into view before it leans in and kisses your sleeping form on the head before fading away.

{[Canterlot meeting room]}

“The foal umm... has a cutie mark now. It’s a cannon with shield next to it. On the cannon there is an apple and there is a butterfly on the shield... uhm. Eep!”

“Thank you fluttershy, this information is vital if we are to secure Equestria’s future. It was... unfortunate that the foals parents were taken away at such a young age. However I have come to understand that lieutenant shield is standing in as a temporary guardian and the foal is getting attached to her, is this true?”

“Yes princess, I’ve heard it myself. I think it has something to do with post traumatic stress disorder. Wait. Just getting this through now... The police force has just found a letter, surprisingly enough it survived the flames. Hmm, it must have been fireproofed because according to this the search team picked up next to nothing else Important aside from the remains of the foals parents and the scattered remains of the terrorist. Whatever was in that letter must be important. Ah. It is also addressed to Said foal. hmm... They are doing tests on it at the moment. I guess that they will give the letter to the foal, around midday tomorrow. Whatever is inside that letter will upset the foal that’s for sure.”

“Thank you twilight. And yes you are correct. That letter will definitely make the foal cry. I should know, I was there when the father asked me to put the enchantment on it. Hmm... I think I will rest myself for the night and I will decide what to do in the morning. Goodnight my little ponies”

{[Next morning]}

You can feel the burning sun on the side of your face, you roll over to escape the suns glare. You find that this only burns the fur exposed to the sun, you pull the covers over your head. After a few minutes, you start to boil under the sheets and you begin sweating.

You groan and shove the duvet off of you, you roll to the side and fall onto your hooves. You then promptly collapse onto the floor, grateful to be in the shade.

After a few minutes you slowly get up, using as little effort as possible. You look at the marble floor, realising that yesterday wasn’t just a nightmare. You lift your head slightly and you begin your lazy journey to the bathroom.

After showering yourself you step out of the bathroom with a towel draped around your back, you then stand in the middle of the bedroom a good few hooves away from the bed. Then you continue to shake yourself dry, flinging rivulets of water everywhere. You reach round to pick up the towel with your teeth when you notice the mark on your flank.

“... YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!”

You jump up and down for joy, you finally got your cutie mark. You gallop full speed towards the doors, opening them and shouting at the guards “I FINALLY GOT MY CUTIE MARK! YAAAAY!”

You giggle a bit and run inside the room, you don’t know how long you ran around before the guard picked you up with his magic and sat you on the floor “I think you need to calm down. You’ve been acting foalishly ever since you got up this morning. Now I need you to listen to me” you nod your head “Good. The princess has requested your presence, we will escort you to the throne room. Okay?” the guard spoke in monotonous voice, mouthing all the vowels.

You slowly nod your head, taking in deep calming breaths. The guard steps to one side and waits for you to walk past him. You hear him step into the hallway behind you, closing the door, then he walks past you and begins marching off down the corridor.

You try to stick to his pace, but you end up looking silly, so you end up trotting quickly at his side. His stoic expression didn’t do anything to calm your nerve. What if the princess doesn’t like me? How does she know about me? What did she do with the kind police-mare? Is she really thousands of years old? Is she really an alicorn? Is she mean? After several minutes of endlessly walking down corridors, all your questions boil down to: Why is her mane flowing like that?

Realisation dawns on you as you “eep!” and jump behind the guard pony’s hind leg and hide behind your mane.

There is a lot of murmuring and then a loud gasp, then some more murmuring. after a while the guard pony steps away from you, leaving you exposed to everyones eyes. You cover your eyes with both hooves, trying to make yourself smaller and trying to become invisible.

Eventually there is the noise of hooves shuffling and then everything is quiet, no pony makes a noise, save for some of the guards breathing. Your instincts are telling you not to look up, but your consciousness is shouting at you to do the opposite. After a few moments your consciousness wins and you remove the hooves from your eyes.

You open one eye and look straight through a yellow pony in front of you. Literally.

You freeze on the spot, fear holding you in place. You stare at her for a few minutes, or a few hours, whilst registering every detail about it. It was a light yellow with a long pink mane, it had wings on its back which meant that it was a pegasus. Also the thing was wearing a necklace with a single pink butterfly gem encrusted into gold which seemed to match her cutie mark. Its cutie mark was a trio of butterflies, they had bluish-cyan bodies and bright pink wings. The way it was standing and the demeanor in which she was idly scraping at the floor with one of her hooves expressed the fact that she was a shy mare.

The last thing you notice about her, is her eyes. They are a sky blue, with no traces of any other colour. The large black orbs, staring deeply into yours.

the amount of tension seemed to disappear as you relaxed after what seemed like hours, but must have only been a few moments.

Eventually she shies away and hides her face in her mane. You look down idly at the floor trying not to look her way again. Eventually you hear a little whisper and you look up. The mare has shuffled a little closer to you, although as soon as you look up she steps back a bit and hides behind her mane again.

You continue to look at the floor, wishing for all the world that a black hole would swallow you up. Suddenly you hear a soft voice “umm, hello... umm my names fluttershy...”

You look up slightly, you could barely hear her, but you recognise the name. More importantly, you know who this mare is. Fluttershy was the element of kindness 6 generations ago (each generation is 30 years or so). The elements of harmony haven’t been needed in nearly 150 years.

“Hi... my name is...” you mumble off as she continues to stare at you.

“Umm, it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me your, name, if you don’t want to. Umm, do you want to know why you’re here?” you nod your head “Umm, please follow me, if you don’t mind”

She slowly turns around and walks towards one of the rooms side doors. You look around and find that all the other ponies that used to be in the room had gone, including the princesses.

Slowly, you follow fluttershy through a pair of double doors. As you walk through, you see a large ornate chandelier hanging above with candlesticks as the source of light. The walls are decorated with foreign flags and other kinds of fabric, as well as the equestrian flag hung at one end of the room. The room itself was smaller than the throne room and had a large U shaped table in the center. Oak, probably used to host small parties and as a negotiations room or briefing room for foreign dignitaries and ponies of significance.

Sitting on the opposite side of the table were five other foals, as well as five other ghost things. On the end of the table sat both princess Luna and princess Celestia, both not wearing the royal jewelry as you’ve seen in pictures on the newspapers.

You try and hide behind fluttershy, but quickly remember the fact that she is see through. You pick up just enough courage to walk next to her, keeping your head low and avoiding eye contact with everyone else in the room. You bend your knees slightly to shrink yourself down even more.

You follow fluttershy to the other side of the table, still not daring to make eye contact with anyone. She moves behind a chair “Would you like to sit down? If you don’t mind that is” she motions towards the empty chair and stands back a little bit. Giving you a much clearer view of the others as they stare at you. One of them leans a little too far and falls flat on her chin. You giggle a bit but immediately get worried and build up a small panic attack “Oh my. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to laugh. Umm sorry” you sit down, gently and carefully, whilst  avoiding looking at the others seated next to you.

As soon as you sit, princess celestia addresses you and the other five ponies “Good morning my little ponies. I know that one of you already know what is going on, but I am going to tell you what I told her a while ago.

There has been numerous threats to equestria recently and there has been many terrorist attacks on the citizens of all the most populated areas, as well as the small city of ponyville. I have called you six here, because equestria needs a team of ponies there to defend them. unfortunately, none of the royal guard has the knowledge nor the means to counter these terrorist attacks.

I will give you a sheet of paper each, all of you must sign this and accept this and sign this. However you can choose to leave now, I will not be holding you back. I must warn you. If you sign these papers, you will never see your friends and family again unless you so happen to meet them by accident, but you must not let them know who you are as they will have been told that you have been involved in a terrible accident and cost you your life.” she pauses for a moment as the other five and you are given your own piece of paper. Two of them look towards the door but quickly put their pen to paper. you look at the paper and stare at it.

Memories of your life flash before your eyes, every birthday you had with your parents. Every nightmare night you ever went out in with your friends and family. The laughs you shared with your friends, the times where you help them through their troubles, especially with the bullies. All the events right up to the moment you went back to your home to see you mom for the last time.

A small tear dropped from your eye and onto the paper as you picked up the pen in your teeth and wrote you name in a scribbly mess. The papers were then collected and placed into a small safe and magically locked in with princess Luna's magic. The safe was then hurried away by a group of five unicorns and three pegasi.

Princess Luna then spoke up “Now that you have signed the paper, you are all now bear the rank of private first class. You will be operating under my section of the equestrian royal army. I will tell you now your future will not be an easy one, it will be filled with many unpleasantries. You however will be the ones that make equestria safe. Behind you now, as I am sure you all very much recognise, are the previous bearers of the elements of harmony.”

She raises a hoof and points towards the lavender unicorn with a purple mane and pink stripe as well as a starry cutie mark, her eyes were the same colour as her mane. Seated in front of her was unicorn-mare with a deep purple coat, she had a light purple straight mane with a dark red stripe. Her cutie mark was a large silver star, with several smaller golden stars surrounding it, here eyes were the same as the mare behind her ”This is Twilight Sparkle, you will be assigned to Evening Sparkle.”

She moves her hoof towards the next unicorn, she had a marshmallow white coat and a purple curly mane. her flank bore a triplet of diamonds for a cutie mark, her eyes were a navy blue. In front of her was a unicorn-mare. She had a off white coat with crimson-blue mane, curled into tight locks and well brushed. The unicorn-mare had a diamond kite-shield for a cutie mark and she also had the same eyes as the mare behind her “Rarity, you will be assigned to Dainty Bell”

She then pointed towards an orange earth pony, with a blond mane with a red band tied on the end and a brown stetson hat, as well as a trio of apples for a cutie mark. Her eyes were a bold green. In front of her stood an Earth pony-colt who was a slightly taller and muscular than everyone else. He had a dark orange coat as well as short cut brown mane mostly tucked underneath a bandanna with the word apple embroidered onto it. His cutie mark was an apple being launched out of a MK V tank cannon  “Applejack, you will be assigned to MacCortland”

She then pointed towards the next pony. She had a bright pink coat, a pink cotton-candy mane and three balloons for a cutie mark, she also had blue eyes. In front of her was a light golden coated pegasi-mare, with a poofy gold mane. Her cutie mark was a flashbang crossed over a 12-gauge shotgun with a balloon just above. Her eyes matched the pink mares “Pinkamena Diane-Pie, you are assigned to Whammy Diane-Pie”

She then points to a neon-blue pegasus with wild rainbow coloured hair, her cutie mark was a cloud with a multicoloured lightning bolt coming out of it, her eyes are a dark magenta. In front of her was dark blue pegasus-colt with messy short-cut rainbow coloured hair. He wore some bandages around his forelegs, close to his hoof and in the same positions. His cutie mark was 50. calibre bullet with a rainbow trail behind it. He also had dark magenta eyes “Rainbow Dash, you will be assigned to Rainbow Shot”

Eventually she looked at you and Fluttershy “And last but not least Fluttershy, you will be assigned to-”

Her voice was interrupted by a large crash resonating in the throne room accompanied by a loud voice yelling “DAMN IT ROOKIE!! I TOLD YOU TO BE CAREFUL!”

Princess luna had momentarily looked towards the throne room with utter bewilderment plastered onto her face, she shook her head and turned to look at her sister, who then excused herself as she got up and walked into the throne room. She then turned her head to face you. You hid behind your mane again as she tried to formulate words, but she kept glancing towards the throne room doors. Eventually she spoke up “Hmm, that would be a fitting name... Rookie will be your new name, your new friends can ask you for your proper name later.”

You nod your head in understanding, not wanting to speak to put yourself further into the spotlight. Princess Celestia walks back in and sits back down next Luna. As soon as she gets comfortable she opens her mouth to speak “Now that you know who will be accompanying you, I you why the old elements of harmony have returned as ‘ghosts’. The truth is that they are not ‘ghosts’ but they are A.I’s. Each of them are Artificial intelligence’s with a different personality. They contain all their memories of their past and can guide you along your path. They also have feelings just like any other pony, so I will ask for you all to get along. Also they are visible to us because of the many projectors I have had installed so that they can resemble their old selves again.

That aside you will begin training tomorrow, if there is any questions you want to ask, now is the time to speak.” after no one raises their hoof, the princess continues “you will all be staying in the same room for the next couple of years. I can assure you that your training will not be easy. But I am confident in your abilities. You must work as a team, more importantly as friends, if you are to get through training. I will see you again at 12 O’clock this evening, in-case you have any other questions you wish to bring up. Thank you, my little ponies”

The royal alicorn sisters slowly stand back up and walk out of the room. As soon as they leave, chaos ensues.

Somehow, whammy managed to bring out a small, blue cannon with a smiley face on a sticky note hung on the end of the barrel. She raised a hoof dramatically and slams it down on the fuse. You hear a loud noise, as if a high-pitched whoopie cushion just went off, and jump to one side as a barrage of confectionary blasts past everyone in the room, covering every surface with streamers and other miscellaneous party wares.

You feel the presence of a hoof on your shoulder, you shift your head slightly to get a better look at who was touching you. A large pink face of whammy is shoved into your field of view “HI I’M WHAMMY PIE! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?!”

This causes you to squeak out in response. The over energetic pegasus-mare seems to notice your reaction, she tones down her reckless abandon to an out-of-proportion grin. Slowly you get back up on your hooves and turn around to face her. You open your mouth to speak but you were instantly cut off when the rainbow maned pegasus-colt jumped in front of Whammy “hay there! I’m Rainbow Shot! What’s your name!?”

You shrink back again and release a small whimper “Hey, what’s the problem”

McCortland enters you field of view “Hay Rainbow! Stop scarin’ the poor thing!”

MacCortland places a hoof on your shoulder “Hey, it’s alright, there ain’t no need ta be ‘fraid of nothin’” he puts on a big beaming smile and sits next to you. Soon after he sits next to you, Evening and Dainty trotted over “Hey! What’s up with Rookie?”

The other unicorn looks at evening in mild disbelief “Does anyone know the poor dears real name?”

“Weren’t you listening, princess Luna called out each of our names. Mine’s Evening, but you can call me Eve. Yours is Dainty, that’s Rainbow Shot, that’s MacCortland, that’s Whammy Pie and that’s... oh yeah, good point.”

One of Dainty’s eyebrows raised. Eve then walked up to you and extended a hoof “It’s okay, we’re all friends here right?”

You slowly extend a hoof and take her proffered one. She hooks her hoof around your leg and gently pulls you off of the ground. You stand up, a little shaky at first, but you soon stand without the assistance of Eve or MacCortland. Rainbow had wandered off and started up a conversation with whammy after she followed her.

You look around and spotted the A.I’s sitting to one side and watching your group with varying degrees of  smiles. You decide to leave the small circle you had gotten yourself into and see why they were smiling. As you approach you are stopped by whammy again “Hi! where are you going?” this causes you to jump and fall over onto your back, unwillingly letting out a bleating sound.

This causes Rainbow Shot to fall over laughing. Embarrassed, you slowly roll over onto your legs. you weakly smile at Whammy. Seeing you so distressed, Whammy slowly walks up to you “I’m sorry for startling you like that, I didn’t mean to do it. I just couldn’t help myself. So what were you doing anyways?”

Swallowing your stubborn timidness, you manage to squeak out a reply “Well, umm. I was just going to see the A.I’s and ask why they are so far away from us, umm sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude” you bow your head in shame.

Whammy lifts your chin up “Well why didn’t you just say so silly!” her huge grin plastered onto her face “C’mon lets go ask!”

With that said she grabs your arm and pulls you over to the six A.I’s and calls out “hey, Rooks her just wanted to ask what you guys were up to and why you were so far away from our little group, I think it’s because you guys are too happy seeing you great grandchildren in a similar group to you guys, but that’s just my guess, ooh do you guys like cupcakes, I love cupcakes, just as much as I like sarsaparilla but honestly who doesn’t like sarsaparilla, do you like sarsaparilla? huh huh huh?” the stream of words was too much for you to handle and it left you in a daze.

The other mares had a similar expression to whammy, except for pinkie pie who had a large grin glued to her face. Almost identical to Whammy’s.

Eventually twilight spoke up “To answer the first, we are standing to one side because we are not allowed to interfere with your relationships. Also before you came along we were all reminiscing about the times when we had our own little adventures, as well as our own friendship.”

You nod your head in understanding, but you still don’t feel right leaving them out. Hesitantly you allow Whammy to lead you away back to the others.

You see that RS has gotten into an argument with MacCortland, seemingly about who was the strongest as they were both hoof wrestling. Eve and Dainty had gotten into a debate about magic and its effects on fashion.

As you walk back into the group Whammy jumps away to go and do... something, you don’t really understand her. Somehow, you don’t think you ever will. You look around and find the cushion you were originally placed behind and you sit down on it, gently at first, but then you feel silly and you just slump the rest of the way down. As soon as you sit down, the side door the princesses went through opens up to reveal a castle servant walking alongside another royal guard.

They both walk alongside each other until they reach your group, who continues to ignore them. right up until the point where the servant loudly cleared his throat. all conversations ceased and a silence descended upon them. the guard held a seemingly angry glare at the wall behind them, not actually looking at them. the servant cleared his throat again, albeit quieter and spoke to the six of you “since you now are under the princesses service, you welfare is down to the castle staff to make sure you are well looked after, for now anyways. The time is now 11:23. If you are to follow me please, I shall take you to her majesties private eating area. that will be where you will be eating lunch and dinner should you want anything. Breakfast will be served in your rooms at dawn, there will be a designated maid for each of your rooms as well as somepony to clean your rooms. now if you will, this way please”

The servant turned around and walked away, going back through the doors he came through. After a few moments of hesitation, you and the others follow him with the single guard as accompaniment.

you and the others follow the servant through a maze of hallways. Eve was busy explaining to Whammy and MacCortland about the historical meanings of the paintings and statues that lined the hallways. Dainty was busy keeping up her appearance by making sure she was keeping her head held high and her hooves gently hitting the floor as she walked, once in awhile though she would glance at some piece of art or decoration that would catch her eye. Whilst Dainty was keeping appearances up, she was talking to RS about the artwork and how it influenced her mothers works, much to the chagrin of Rainbow. The others didn’t talk to you much, the odd questions or an off-hoof comment implied towards your particular direction. But you didn’t mind, the others looked content which, in turn, made you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Eventually you all arrived at the private eating area, inside was a small square table with twelve chairs, three on each side, with a decorative candle holder with several candles on it. Above you there was a giant crystalline chandelier as the flames on the candles danced, the light shone through the crystals and created an almost disco like effect on the room. There were several paintings of famous ponies, dating from pre-equestrian times all the way up to the present times.

You all slowly sit down, keeping close to each other on one corner of the table. Several waiters and cooks suddenly flow out of another set of double doors, placing down a large array of assorted foodstuffs. cabbage, carrots, apples, celery, jams, breads, pastas; you name it, they got it. The moment they set everything down Whammy, in her mysterious ways, had managed to pile up one of everything onto her plate. This made a massive food stack almost as big as herself which she was already plowing her way through with gusto.

RS had gotten small salad with some hay fries, Eve and MacCortland mimicked RS and they all started eating it, not with as much enthusiasm as Whammy though. Dainty wrinkled her nose at the sight of Whammy, whom she had the displeasure of sitting next to, and had decided to go for a small pasta with some carrots and celery. You decided to go for a daisy sandwich with some hay fries, which you carefully picked up and took small bites out of. All conversations had ceased as you all ate in silence.

once you had all finished, including Whammy, everypony began conversations. even you relaxed around them, adding your voice into the fray occasionally. The feeling of being around your new friends was joyful and invigorating, it made you ooze happiness.

This moment was not to last however, when a door opened, revealing a certain very worried police-mare. She came in holding a letter in her mouth. Her gaze roamed the room until it fell on you. As soon as she saw you she lowered her head and walked towards you. You began to panic as all the conversations seemed to have stopped and were focused on this one mare.

When she reached you she placed the letter in front of you “It’s addressed to you. We tried opening it earlier but only your hoof can break the magic seal. We pulled it out of the house once the flames had been extinguished. everything apart from this and a handful of other items were saved from the explosion and the fire. Sorry”

You slowly nod your head. You tear your eyes away from the mare to look at the letter she put in front of you. You reach out a hoof, pick it up, break the seal and open it. you slid the letter out of its envelope and carefully unfold it.

To my baby foal

Should you ever find this letter, or there is an accident that leaves me unwell, or worse. Dead. I want you to know that I have always and forever will love you. Even though I never showed it, I have always been proud of you.

Remember the time when you were in the school production, you were dressed as a carrot. You were so downtrodden that day because I couldn’t be there. Well, I did get there. I arrived just before you started singing. You made me more proud that day than I ever was before.

I’m sorry we never really saw eye to eye. And I’m sorry for not being the father I should have been. If you do read this letter, I just want to say, that I love you. And... I’m sorry... So terribly terribly sorry.

From your ever-so-proud father

Iron Shield

You feel tears beginning to well up. You flash back to all the times your dad had either ignored you, or made you feel unwanted. Then you think about how he always pushed you to do more, to better yourself at everything you did. How he seemingly didn’t care about what you did, how he even crumpled up a picture you drew and told you to draw it better. Only for you to find it in a frame by your dad's bedside table the very same day.

You shock yourself back to the present and tears flow freely down your face. your legs buckle and you fall to the floor. You cry in big heaving sobs clenching your eyes shut. You picture your mothers and fathers faces in your head, only serving to make you cry harder.

You feel several hooves and wings rubbing your back and a large figure pull you into a tight embrace. you turn you head and bury your face into the figures shoulder. You hear the other ponies voices but you’re too upset to listen to them. You’re not sure how long you lay there crying, but after a long while you couldn’t cry anymore as your tear ducts had dried up. you lay there in silence for a while before you felt exhaustion wash over you.

You welcomingly embrace it’s gentle embrace as you pass out in the figures arms.

<<>>

Rookie drops the letter and tears begin to drop from the clearly upset earth pony.

Eve, confused by the sudden outburst, stepped forward and picked up the letter. She then projected her voice so all the ponies in the room could hear her.

After conveying the message in the letter, the group gathered round Rookie. Trying their best to comfort the crying foal to the best of their abilities. The A.I’s had disappeared as soon as the police-mare opened the doors.

However, quite soon, it became evident that Rookie had fallen asleep in the mares forelegs. Dainty soon spoke up “I still don’t understand why Rookie was crying so much. Surely the poor thing should be crying tears of joy, not complete and utter despair”

“Ah agree, It jus’ doesn’t add up” MacCortland added

Soon the group began to bicker amongst themselves, going on about how strange the event was. But their bickering was quickly silenced by the police-mare “I’ll tell you why... They were both murdered two days ago in a terrorist attack”

The room went dead silent. The only noise in the room was the groups breathing and the shuffling of hooves. Evening sparkle could have sworn the light from the candles wavered and dimmed a little.

“I’ll go put the foal to bed, probably won’t be up till tomorrow. goodnight all”

And with that the police mare left the room.

With the mood dampened because of the sudden revelation, the five foals plodded off to their rooms to mull over what just happened.

<<>>

You slowly open your eyes. They feel sore and sensitive to touch. You begin to remember the events of yesterday. The morning breakfast with the princesses, the contract, your new friends. Lunchtime. The letter. Just thinking about it threatens to make you cry again.

You slide out of bed and make your way to the bathroom, dragging your hooves along the carpet floor. As soon as you walk in you look into the sparkly clean mirror. You see your reddened eyes, the tear stains running down your cheeks.

Today you start training and you want to look reasonably presentable. you hop into the shower and let the water run till it gets warm enough. You stand there for a few minutes letting the relaxing water wash away the stress of the past few days. eventually you get the soap and wash away the body odour and dirt that had built up on your coat and mane. Making sure to scrub a little more on your cutie mark, both to check if it was real and to make it even more clean.

As you dry yourself up and walk out the bathroom, a castle servant walks in. She hands you a note and starts tidying up your bed. You read the note:

Report to the barracks A.S.A.P

With no way of knowing where the barracks is, you step outside the door and politely ask one of the 2 guards stations to escort you to the barracks. To which the older one smiles and nods, he steps forwards ask inclines his head for you to follow him.

Once at the barracks, you thank the grizzled old pony as he walks away.

As you enter, you are greeted with the familiar faces of your newfound friends, as well as the six A.I’s.

“Ah, Rookie has arrived. Now I can inform you all about what your training will include.” The first thing you notice is that Twilight sparkle was standing in front of a bench with the other five foals occupying it. Pushing your thoughts about being late aside, you sit down next to Rainbow shot.  “Okay, so first things first:

1. You are all to be up at Six.

2. you are to be where we want you to be five minutes before hoof.

3. Breakfast at Six Thirty.

4.You will be doing fitness training from Seven Thirty till One.

1. Lunch at One Fifteen.

6.Other lessons from One Forty-Five till Six Fifteen.

7.After Six Fifteen you have time to yourselves.

8.Dinner and tea at Eight.

9.lights off at Ten.

I think that just about covers the basic timeline. I will go further in-depth about you schedules later. Although you will all be training together, there are some aspects where you will be separated into three separate groups of pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies. This will be because of your physical differences. Although you will mostly be doing team exercises so you will need to work together to complete them. Okay now are there any questions?”

Eve’s hoof shot straight up.

“Yes Eve”

“What sort of studying are we going to do?”

“Oh trust me Eve, you're going to LOVE what we’re going to put in front of you when it comes to guerilla warfare and tactics. Oh, Plus you will definitely learn how to use... This”

The holographic projection of Twilight was replaced with the image of a larger machine. It looked like a large metal pony, big enough so a single pony could fit inside it and become fully encased in a hard metallic exoskeleton. It had an auto-turret on its back and several rocket pods welded onto its sides.

“This is just a smaller version of what you will use, it’s really just a large body suit. But what we’ll put you in will be half the height of a dragon. It’ll also be bipedal. but first things first. We’ll need to train you in how to use it and how to do basic combat outside your combat suits. Your training begins now. I’ll hand you over to the training instructors. They will be strict, but outside training times they will be just as friendly as any other pony. And a quick word of advice, never give up. No matter how hard it is.”

As she said those last words, the projection of the machine briefly changed back to twilight before disappearing. She blinked out like the image on a Bush 6693D analog TV

THIS >>>

As soon as she vanished two ponies wearing loose fitting camouflage trousers and tops entered the room. “I am Corporal Masusa” he pointed to the other pony “And this is Craftsman Stacy. You will refer to me as corporal and him as staff, I do not want to hear anyone calling me or him sir. Is that clear?”

The six of you gave a collective “Yes corporal” although your voice was more of a whisper.

“I Said is that clear?!”

another chorus of “Yes corporal” was given, this time at a volume of just under a shout. Although you only managed to shout at just above a normal voice volume. Craftsman Stacy stalks up to you. He is a beige coloured pony with blond hair “I don’t think you’re putting any effort into it! do you want to get through basic training?!” You mumble out a yes corporal, to which he shouts louder “WHAT DID YOU SAY!”

“Y-Yes Staff”

“SPEAK LOUDER!”

“Yes Staff!” you yell.

“That’s much better” Stacy said turning around and walking back to Masusa.

“Right, now let's march to the gym so we can get your fitness up.”

Fitness consisted of push ups, sit ups, pull ups, running for miles at a time as well as carrying weights equal your own body mass in saddle bags. They put you through a series of rigorous tests meant to assess your physical and mental abilities when exercising.

The next stage of training involved learning about the different aspects of army life, tactics, situation awareness and several other info on basic knowledge. Unfortunately, the only thing you learned about it, was what to do when facing an enemy. Get into cover, or if no cover is available, lay down on the floor.

Every day was repetitive to an extent. The Fitness regime was hard, but gradually got easier as you got older. The guards ponies always treated you with respect, but there were still murmur and whispers about your capabilities. Lessons were progressively getting more complicated with each month. The lessons you had with MacCortland were difficult, as they usually involved physical strength, stamina and manipulation of the environment around you.

MacCortland and yourself were taught the ability to slam your forehooves into the ground and create a barrier made entirely out of earth. MacCortlands barrier was big enough to fit 10 or 11 ponies behind, yours only managed to fit 5 or 6.

The other five were taught different abilities due to your difference in species. The unicorns were taught support spells designed to aid the earth ponies and pegasi with combat, as well as offensive and defensive spells. Pegasi were also trained in combat tactics and agility. Their connection to the air currents and weather made them able to manipulate the clouds into a dense ball of electrical energy, capable of sending out bolts of lightning to nearby targets.

You and your friends were trained in basic combat for fifteen months. Later you were trained in advanced combat, learning how to use more complex strategies to outsmart Equestrias enemies.

Twelve years you spent in total, training to become one of the heroes that Equestria would need. Little did you and your friends know, that nothing could have prepared you six for the event, that wouldn’t just threaten Equestria... but the entire planet. This is your story. This is your legacy.